Tea
by Cheyenne1412
Summary: "Rukia loves tea. Because tea quenches her thirst and brings back the memories of that day. The day when her heart became uncontrollable each time she sees a certain someone." An IchiRuki One-shot. Rated T for safety. Sorry for silly grammar mistakes. And of course, enjoy.


**Hello there readers! Welcome to my first fanfiction in 2015! And here, as a gift for you, another IchiRuki ONE SHOT! Just enjoy.**

Tea 

"A Choco-frosted donut, a nice hot cup of tea and a morning newspaper might be a great idea at the time."

Rukia thought as she stuffed a sugary donut in her mouth and washed down the sweet, chalky taste with tea. The hot liquid was thick and smoky, and the steam enveloped her face as she drained it. Rukia loves tea. Especially in winter, because tea quenches her thirst and brings back the memories of that day. The day when her heart became uncontrollable each time she sees a certain someone…

**(Flashbacks)**

"_Oy! Rukia! We're late!" Rukia yawned and stretched. That dumb Ichigo woke her up again._

"_Hurry up Rukia! We're gonna be late for school!" Ichigo kept yelling through the phone. She glanced at the clock. 8:30 a.m._

"_Oh God!" The girl immediately jumped out of the bed, rushed to the bathroom. "H-Hold on! I'm almost done!" She yelled at the top of her lungs and quickly grabbed the uniform. And everything started when she heard someone snickering through the phone._

"_What's so funny?" Rukia asked as Ichigo burst into a laugh._

"_It's freaking Sunday, idiot. I just wanna ask if you'd like to hang out." Ichigo said, tried to hold in his laughter._

"_Alright, you'd better be down there waiting for me already or I'll bankai you, bastard!" Rukia hung up and hurried downstairs._

_As soon as she stepped out of the house, freezing winds and snowflakes flew like bullets to her face and the poor girl landed on her butt. _

"_Jeez, seems like today is your unlucky day." Ichigo said as he walked towards her and lent her a hand._

"_It's your fault idiot!" Rukia grumbled and stood up on her own. She then noticed a sweet scent from Ichigo. It came from the cup he was holding._

"_What is that?"_

"_It's tea." Ichigo said, handed her the paper cup. The liquid inside was dark, and she felt the evanescent steam in the pine scented tea._

"_What is…tea?"_

_Ichigo gave her a smirk. "You can try." He said._

_Rukia looked at the cup. What if this is another prank? What if this thing is poisoned? Will she have to go to the bathroom nine times every night from diarrhea? And she hesitantly brought it to her mouth. Then she managed to take her first sip. The scent instantly drowned her. Undertones of evergreen overlaid with smoke and chocolate. Then it blissed; sweet and smooth like honey, with the pungency of cinnamon, spicy like cayenne pepper. After it coursed down her throat, it left a sour and sweet scent dancing on her tongue. She inhaled the fragrant steam once more and took a long sip, lowered down the mug, gave out a sigh._

"_Man…So this is what tea is..." Rukia gave Ichigo a wolfish grin and took another sip._

"_Hey! Give that back! I haven't tried it yet!"_

"_Keep dreaming idiot! You gave it to me! So it's mine all alone!"_

_As Ichigo reached out and snatched the cup from Rukia who was trying to escape with her precious treasure, the poor girl accidently stepped on a slippery puddle of water and face-planted on the cold snow. The cup slipped out of Ichigo's hand as he tried to control his balance, and the last thing Rukia knew before she fell unconscious were hot tea splashed on her face and an "Oh sh-" from Ichigo._

_The next thing she knew, she was on her bed with a packet of ice on her forehead. Then Ichigo walked in with a plate full of pancakes and a cup of tea on a tray. He put the tray down on a table nearby and rushed to her as soon as he saw her._

"_Thank god you're awake. I thought you might be in a coma or something!" Ichigo said as he gently replaced the ice-pack on her forehead with a new one._

"_Stupid Ichigo! It's your fault I'm sick!" Rukia sat up but quickly fell down, as a massive headache struck her._

"_Jeez, stop moving. I brought some pancakes and a cup of tea here." He then put the tray on her laps. "So…this is…a sorry, okay?"_

_Rukia suddenly blushed. She saw Ichigo's soft side. And she never thought about him this way before, because she'd never expect that dumb Ichigo could be like this sometimes._

"_Hm? Your face is red." He said, removing the ice-pack and without warning, he pressed his forehead against hers._

_Rukia stunned. She felt her cheeks flaming and her face fire-fucking-engine red._

"_Damn…" Ichigo said as he moved away. "Your temperature is higher than burning coal right now. Maybe some pancakes would be a great idea."_

"_I-I think so…" Rukia tried to calm herself down and picked up a fork. However, her hands were trembling, her grip on the fork loosened and she dropped it._

"_D-Don't tell me I'll have to…" Ichigo stuttered and gave out a sigh. "Fine…" He said and picked up the fork._

_Rukia's eyes widened. "S-Stop! I can do this myself!" She yelled but quickly stopped by the sweet scent of syrup and pancake in her mouth._

"_It was fine, I told you." Ichigo said while cutting another piece of pancake. "It was my fault anyway. Besides, I can't ignore you while you're sick like this."_

_Rukia didn't say a thing. She kept eating and staring at the blanket._

"_What is this…?"_

"_This feeling…is really strange…"_

"_I'm really losing it…"_

"_It can't be…"_

"…_Love, right?"_

"_Uh….Rukia?" Ichigo suddenly interrupted her thoughts._

"_EEK! Ah…uh…huh?" Rukia stuttered. She started to blush again._

"_I guess I have to go now. Take care, okay?" He replaced the ice-pack on her forehead with a new one, gave her a grin and left._

"_And there he went…" Rukia's eyes lowered. She couldn't imagine that one day she'd fell so easily for an idiot like Ichigo. She realized that if things turned out like this, she'll never be able to see him as a good friend or goof around with him like before. She won't have the courage to look straight in his brown eyes like she used to. And she felt her heart melts like chocolate each time he crosses her thoughts._

"_Dammit, baka!" Rukia cursed under her breath. "Why the hell do you have to be so caring and so gentle and so goddamn sweet Ichigo!? GAHH!" She buried her face into the pillow._

"_Darn it, heart. Stop racing like that…!" She mumbled. "Stop freaking blushing, Rukia! This is not you!" And she kept rolling and rolling on her bed, blushing and screaming in her pillow._

**(End Flashbacks)**

Rukia took another sip, lowering the mug. And she realized, it'd been a year since she first felt her heart flutter for someone. She started to notice that Inoue has something for Ichigo, too. Rukia like Orihime, but she also decided that she cannot let her first love passes by. The only thing she could do to not lose him to Orihime is the thing that she didn't want to do at all.

A confession.

The phone suddenly rang, interrupted her thoughts.

"Rukia?" She immediately blushed as soon as she heard the voice on the other side of the phone.

"I-Ichigo?"

"It's Sunday. Wanna hang out? We are going to the amusement park."

"Amusement park? Hell to the yeah!" Rukia said, excited. "Just hold on a second. I'll be downstairs right away!"

"Take your time, we'll be waiting."

"Wait. We?" Rukia asked, confused.

"Yeah. Orihime is here, too!"

"Hi Rukia-san!" Inoue was heard yelling through the phone.

"Oh. Hi Inoue! I'll be down there in a minute." Rukia hung up, a bit disappointed.

_**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**_

"Hey! A roller coaster! Let's go!" Inoue said as she grabbed Ichigo's arm and dragged him towards the roller coaster. "It looks so scary! Let's sit together, Kurosaki-kun."

"But…How about Rukia? This is the first time she ride a roller coaster, I think I should sit with her…"

"PLEASE TIGHTEN YOUR SEATBELT NOW, THE JOURNEY WILL START IN 30 SECONDS!"

"Well, it seems like we're gonna be late if we don't hurry up." Inoue said. "Can you sit behind us, Rukia-san? You're very brave, so I'm sure that you're gonna be okay."

Rukia silently sat in the seat behind Ichigo, staring at the ground. "I guess I will… sit here, then…" She said, tried to act normal.

Before she knew it, the train dashed away at the speed of light. Inoue was screaming, and through the gap between the seats, Rukia saw her hugging Ichigo's left arm tightly and pressed her face against his left shoulder. The next thing she knew was her vision got blurry and her surroundings turned pitch black. The train was running through a dark cave.

No one noticed little droplets of water flying passed them, sparkling in the dark and silent sobs between people screaming and yelling.

"Oh god. Was it that scary? You look like you've just cried." Ichigo said after they got off and Rukia nodded.

"Sorry Rukia-san! I should've sat with you! Here, use my handkerchief." Orihime took out a white handkerchief in her pocket.

"I'm feeling a little bit sick, so I guess I'm going home." Rukia silently said, staring at the ground. "No need to worry about me." And she left.

As soon as Rukia opened the door, she jumped on her bed, buried her face in the pillow. Just a moment later, the white, clean pillow was all wet on one side.

"I… lost."

Rukia mumbled between her sobs, and pulled the blanket over her head. The poor girl curled up sobbing under the blanket and ended up falling asleep.

"Rukia? Are you there?"

She knew that goddamn voice.

"I'm not. Go away."

The door opened. Ichigo stepped in and found Rukia curling inside the blanket like a caterpillar. Without any hesitation, he lifted the blanket up.

"Look, I'm sorry for not sitting with you on that roller coaster. I didn't think it was that scary for you." He stopped a bit. "Besides…"

Rukia lost all her patience: "IT'S NOT BECAUSE OF THAT GODDAMN ROLLER COASTER, ICHIGO!" Her eyes went teary again.

"IT'S BECAUSE OF…" She suddenly stuttered. "I-It's because of…"

"What is it?"

"BECAUSE… I LIKE YOU! OKAY?!"

"Wha…?"

"I was jealous! Because I saw Inoue-san and you did like…lovey-dovey stuff. It hurts! It hurts a lot you know!" Words automatically flew out of her mouth.

"I…can't help it… It was because of that damn tea cup last year! And because of it, I fell so easily for an idiot like you, Ichigo!" Rukia wiped away the tears by her palm. "I tried so hard to act normal around you, but I failed miserably and you didn't even notice! It's been a year, Ichigo! I should've said this sooner, but I didn't have enough courage! I...I…." Rukia couldn't hold it in anymore. She started crying.

In an instant, the girl found herself in Ichigo's arm, squeezing the light out of her.

"Shh… Don't cry…" He whispered in her ear. "I'm sorry. Sorry for not understanding how you feel. Sorry." He gently patted her on her back until what was left in her throat was just little hiccups.

Then he released her, look straight into her eyes. "Don't cry, Rukia." He gave her a small smile. "I hate it when my girl cry, y'know."

"Your…girl?"

"Uh huh."

"Y'know what?" Rukia lifted her head up, looking at his beautiful brown eyes. "I like the sound of that."

They both laughed, and the tension between them disappeared immediately.

"By the way, I heard that there's a new coffee shop downtown."

"Do they have tea?"

"Of course."

"Then let's go, baka!"

No matter how many different types of tea Rukia tried, she will never forget the first taste - sweet like honey, pungent like cinnamon, spicy like cayenne pepper of her first cup of hot tea. Because it opened a new door in her life, and brought her to a beautiful _relationship._

**Woo! My first One-shot right there. Thank you for spending a little time reading this little piece of work. May 2015 be nice to all of you, and wish you a nice rest-of-today and a nice tomorrow! :3**

**Cheyenne~**


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